Cancellation & Reschedule Policies Within the Therapeutic Space

Cancellation & Rescheduling Policies Within the Therapeutic Space

If you are someone that has been on a mental health journey for any amount of time now, you may have come by what is called a “cancellation policy”. If this is your first entry point into the mental health world - then welcome! We hope this journal serves to be informative for you as you embark on this journey.

What is a Cancellation Policy?

A cancellation & reschedule policy is a policy set up by a provider that is providing a professional service to a client. This policy typically encompasses no-shows, late cancellations, and last-minute re-schedules. All health care providers are required by law to explicitly state their cancellation & reschedule policy on any and all written documentation that is to be signed by their clients. Cancellation & reschedule policies at mental health practices usually entail a 48-hour window outside of which cancellations and re-schedules are not charged. Any reschedule, cancellation or no-show within a 48-hour window is charged at the full session fee rate. Now you may be wondering “that seems rigid! my provider should be flexible!”. So, let’s unpack this a little more and understand the “why” behind this policy.

Why Therapists Have Cancellation Policies

At Repose, we offer a 48-hour cancellation/rescheduling window. This cancellation policy exists to safeguard both yours and your clinician’s time. As your clinician is providing a professional service, their availability is also in high demand. Within 48 hours, it is generally not possible to adequately utilize that clinical time. That clinical time when unexpectedly canceled is a lost hour that could have been utilized to service another client, or tend to administrative work. The cancellation and reschedule policy exists to honor yours and your clinician’s time. By setting consistent boundaries for your work together, the policy aims to make the therapeutic space a reliable and safe container in which you may learn more about yourself and grow unencumbered by unclear expectations.

The work that you do with your therapist is deeply healing, and powerful. It also is, however, challenging and tender, because it speaks to addressing and working through some of the youngest parts of you. Therapy for a lot of folks seeks to model a healthy relationship with boundaries, transparency, and reciprocal dialogue. This inadvertently repairs a lot of deeper and younger wounds that we as individuals carry throughout our lifetime. What our child-self most desperately needs is safety - and safety is built through compassionate boundaries. The cancellation & reschedule policy in therapy is one such structure that models and fosters compassionate boundaries. It is primarily in place not to meet our adult needs, but rather the needs of our inner child that responds to clear expectations, structure, and consistency.

What About When Your Therapist Cancels?

At some point, it is likely that your therapist may have to cancel or reschedule your appointment.  When this happens you of course will not be charged. However, you may sometimes find that the cancellation brings up emotions for you that might be related to past experiences of being rejected, neglected, or feeling unimportant. You may logically understand that your therapist has things going on in their life that may cause them to occasionally need to cancel or reschedule their appointment with you, but the experience of what that feels like may trigger your child-self to react.  Since many people work out issues stemming from childhood in therapy,  it is paramount for your therapist to prioritize and model consistency when scheduling your sessions together. In the rare event that they must cancel or reschedule a session with you, they should offer you an alternate time to meet with them when it is possible.  However, it is also crucial for these feelings your child self is experiencing to be acknowledged and not be pushed to the side.  This is may be a great opportunity for you to bring these feelings to your therapist for discussion and processing. 

Additionally, an important benefit of working with a therapist in a group practice such as Repose is that there is often more oversight and greater accountability to ensure that your therapist is upholding best practices for your treatment.  Group therapy practices, such as Repose, may offer you a higher level of care because there is professional management that has set clinical expectations and policies.  In the instance that a therapist is not providing consistency in treatment or even if it is simply not the right fit, remember that you have full autonomy to reach out to someone within the group practice’s administration to have your concerns heard.

Repose’s Cancellation & Reschedule Policy

CANCELLATION & RESCHEDULE POLICY:
As mentioned above, Repose has a 48-hour cancellation policy. This means that all appointment cancellations or reschedule requests must be communicated to the practice 48 hours or more before a scheduled appointment’s start time. Clients are responsible for the full session fee regardless of whether or not the appointment was rescheduled within the same week of the canceled appointment. The full session fee is also charged when a client does not show up for a scheduled appointment. It is important to note that neither in-network nor out-of-network insurance reimburses for sessions that are not attended. We understand that unanticipated conflicts may arise and you may need to cancel within the 48-hour window. In this case, we ask that you please still inform your therapist with as much notice as possible so that they may plan accordingly. 

LATENESS TO APPOINTMENTS: If you are running late to a session, it is important to let your therapist know as soon as possible by sending them a secure message. Your therapist will wait for you for approximately 15 minutes after your scheduled session start time before charging you for the session and marking it as a no-show or late cancellation. 

COMMUNICATE ABOUT SCHEDULING: If you need to make changes to upcoming appointments, please discuss this directly with your clinician in session or via secure message. When you provide more than 48-hours notice for canceling or rescheduling from your session start time, you will not be charged for the appointment. If your notice is given by sending a secure message, the time stamp on the message will let us know that it was sent 48 hours in advance. 

APPOINTMENT REMINDERS: In order to remind you of your upcoming appointment, your therapist will confirm your next scheduled appointment at the end of each session. Additionally, an email reminder will be sent 72 hours before your visit so that you have ample time to cancel or reschedule without being responsible for the session fee. Additionally, we have set up a text reminder at 72 hours and a voice reminder 24 hours before. You can opt-out of these reminders if you would like. Lastly, Simple Practice will send you an email notice 10 minutes before your session begins so that you can notify your therapist if you are running late.

The discussion of money can be a deeply uncomfortable topic, especially within the confines of a therapeutic relationship where compassion, safety, support, and connection are supreme. Recognizing that there is a "transactional" aspect to any therapeutic relationship, although unsettling, is necessary to ensure that both parties involved are being acknowledged, considered, and valued.

Read our blog on Why Seeing An Out-of-network Therapist Can Actually Save You Money here